


Friends Day in Hokanniemi

by wavewright62



Category: A Redtail's Dream (Webcomic)
Genre: Finnish Friends Day, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 20:37:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13349070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wavewright62/pseuds/wavewright62
Summary: Ville is introduced to his first Friends Day (the Finnish answer to Valentines Day that celebrates *all* human relationships, not just romance) as a human.  Everything was going so well until Paju tried to poison him.





	Friends Day in Hokanniemi

**Author's Note:**

  * For [helia7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/helia7/gifts).



\------

“A celebration of love? Great, I _love_ love!” Ville flipped onto his back on the sofa and craned his head to look back at Hannu. “I love _you,_ and I love _Paju,_ and I love _Astrid,_ and I love _you,_ ” he paused, “I don’t love Oona.” He stuck his tongue out.

“Ville, stop it,” Hannu held up his hands, “Valentine’s Day is an American holiday. Ours is Friends Day. You know about Friends Day.”

“Oh, right.” Ville brightened again. “I _love_ Friends Day! What’s Friends Day again?”

Hannu sighed and looked into his lap. “Hey, sit up, remember? Like a person?” Ville hastily sat upright again. “Every day is Friends Day with you, I can hardly walk down the street with you anymore. People come right up to you, and start _talking,_ right on the street. It’s _weird._ ” Hannu sighed again at Ville’s crestfallen expression. “Then they start talking to _me._ ”

“Is that bad?” Ville looked genuinely puzzled. “You said it was impolite to only talk to one person in a group?”

“Umm, yeah.” Hannu was still not used to being the arbiter of manners and human relations for Ville. He would much rather not deal with the topic, but in Ville’s first days as a human Hannu had had to interfere with some embarrassing moments. Even whispering that Ville was a little brain-damaged couldn’t quite paper over the time he licked Riikka’s hand as she proffered a handshake. When Hannu hissed at him, he apologised and offered Anssi a limp-wristed hand. Hannu shuddered at the memory.

“Is it presents? Maybe Jonna will give me a bun!” Ville looked at Hannu anxiously, “but where will I balance it now?”

Hannu almost cracked a smile when he saw Ville anxiously holding a hand up to his upturned nose. Ville’s favourite game as a dog had been balancing a treat on his muzzle, until Hannu gave him a nod, allowing him to drop the treat onto the floor and eat it. “You can just eat it, Ville,” he said, “out of your _hand._ ”

“Except when I can’t,” Ville still had his hand on his nose. “You said I have to use a fork and-and the other thingies. You said I can’t eat when I am working at the counter, I can’t eat when someone has left half a bun behind.” Hannu grimaced with distaste. Ville carried on reciting, “I can’t eat the ones from the bin. I can’t eat it if it falls on the ground, except unless I pick it up really quickly, but not after” he held up his hand and turned it palm out to Hannu, “ _this many_ second things. I can’t eat until everybody else does. I have to _stop_ eating when everybody else does. I have to wait until it’s cooked. I have to eat _lettuce,_ like a hare.” It was Ville’s turn to grimace. “It’s so hard.”

“I know that you’ve been giving your lettuce to the turtle, Ville.” He noted with satisfaction that Ville had the grace to look abashed. “I promise they won’t make you eat lettuce on Friends Day,” Hannu threw the folded piece of paper he’d been holding at Ville.

Ville looked at the projectile eagerly, then with confusion as he couldn’t remember whether to catch it with his mouth or his hands, and it fell to the floor. Picking it up and unfolding it, he whined, “Hannuuuu! I can’t reeeeead it. What does it say, tell meeeee.”

Hannu heaved himself out of his chair with a huff and sat on the sofa next to Ville. He took the paper back and held it up for Ville to see. “Paju sent us an invitation. Well, probably everybody, but anyway,” he traced the words with his finger for Ville's benefit as he read them. “Friends Day, party, from 1pm, food, music, fun, prizes,” he frowned, “I don’t know what she means by ‘prizes.’"

“The prize for the best friend!,” Ville squirmed with delight, “that’s YOU!”

Hannu handed the invitation back to Ville. “Hrm. Anyway, I have to work. Probably.” He knew perfectly well he would be finished with the day’s baking before noon, but didn’t want to tell Ville that. “It’ll be busy, you might have to work, too.” He heaved himself off the sofa again.

“Hannuuuuu, I want to have friends fun! I want you to have a prize for being the _best_ friend! Or me!”

“Well,” Hannu grinned, “you get me as a friend, isn’t that enough of a prize?”

“Yeah,” Ville agreed, “You’re right.” He curled up on the sofa, looking at the invitation happily. Hannu shook his head; maybe it was better that Ville had no sense of sarcasm or irony.

\---------

Hannu and Ville wandered down to the common area, where Paju had erected some canopies, with fairy lights strung underneath. Ville clapped his hands with joy, but Hannu didn’t let him linger. They queued for some hot soup and bread, then chose an empty table as close to the edge of the canopy as they could.

“Okay, everyone,” Paju had to raise her voice to be heard over the murmuring under the canopy, “Everyone! May I have your attention please! We’re going to have a Quiz – ‘Who is the Best Friend’! I will pass out these sheets, and read out the questions. You have to write down the answers.” Tuomi and his friends were playing drums on the table and bickering amongst themselves. Paju scowled but carried on, shouting, “The questions are all about your best friend. It could be also about your lover or your wife or husband-"

“Which one do you want?” The question came from somewhere Paju couldn’t identify, but laughter rippled through the crowd.

Paju set her mouth in a line. “Ha ha,” she laughed mirthlessly. “The person you know best, okay?” She finished passing out the sheets and pens. “First question! What is-"

“Wait! I haven’t decided who it is yet,” Pekka cried out, “give us a minute.” His wife clouted him on the shoulder.

“Hannu! Hannu! _I’m_ your best friend! Am I? Am I?” Ville’s brown eyes were sparkling at he gazed at Hannu.

“Yes, Ville, you are the _best_ dog.” Hearing snickers at the next table, Hannu covered with, “uhhh, best _dog trainer_ around! I, uh, don’t know how I could have managed Ville without you.” He swallowed. “May he rest in peace.” He fidgeted. “Ville the dog, that is.” Nobody looked terribly convinced, least of all Ville.

“All right, everybody, first question!,” Paju shouted, drawing attention back to herself, “What is their favourite food!”

Hannu snorted, “Easy one! Hot dogs,” he said as he wrote it on his sheet, then spelled out as he pretended to write, “R-A-B-B-I-T S-T-E-W.”

“Ewww,” Ville shouted and clapped his hands, “I know! Black buns! Hannu likes the black buns best!” Hannu pretended he didn’t hear the twitters from the next table.

“You’re supposed to _write down_ your answers,” Paju scolded, looking pointedly at nobody in particular.

Ville turned sad eyes to Hannu, “How am I supposed to do that? I can’t wriiiiiite.”

Hannu took Ville’s sheet, but Paju strode over to the table. “It’s okay, Ville, I can write that for you.” She and Hannu exchanged glares. “I don’t trust Hannu to write your answers honestly anyway.” More quietly, she said to Ville, “If you like, I could teach you to write. I don’t know how you got out of school.”

Hannu interrupted smoothly, “His hands, his hands aren’t, ahhh, built for a pencil.”

Ville held out his hands to Paju and grinned ingratiatingly. “And Hannu likes black buns.”

“They look fine to me,” she said doubtfully, looking at Ville’s plump hands. She neatly wrote Ville’s answer on his sheet before straightening up. “Next question!,” she shouted, “Do they snore?”

Murmuring and good-natured laughing erupted around the tables, with various people protesting vehemently that they did _not_ snore. Ville laughed, “Hahaha! Hannu doesn’t snore, but he does talk in his sleep!”

“What?! NO!,” Hannu protested, “I do not!”

“Is that right? What does he say?,” Paju simpered to Ville as she wrote, jerking Ville’s paper away from Hannu’s attempts to wrest it from her.

“Oh, he begs the Swan not to- " Ville broke off suddenly in confusion as Hannu glared at him, remembering that he was supposed to keep their adventure to save the town a secret. He looked at Paju and Hannu sheepishly, “I … don’t know what he’s saying.”

Hannu attempted a grin, “and Ville drools.”

Paju didn’t look at Hannu, but her lip curled in distaste. “This next one’s for you, Ville,” and she raised her voice to the crowd, “What’s the most disgusting thing you’ve ever seen them eat?”

“Poison,” Ville replied without hesitation, then expectantly waited for Paju to write it down. They both queried him. Ville looked surprised, and explained to Hannu, “You were eating those little brown things that smell nice and I wanted some too, but Juoko said they were poison and I couldn’t have any. He _saved_ me!” He nudged Paju’s arm with his face, startling her and causing her to recoil, “Write that down, Hannu ate poison!”

“I did not!,” Hannu protested. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Besides, _you_ ate a raw fish in the lake.” Ville just shrugged; it was true, but he was a seal at the time. It wasn’t disgusting at the time, it was natural…and tasty.

Paju muttered as she wrote, “I wouldn’t put it past Hannu to eat poison.” She finished writing with a flourish. “That makes a lot of sense, actually. I’m glad Juoko stopped you, though, Ville.” Ville grinned at her in appreciation. 

Hannu rolled his eyes. "Also, the sausage from under the fridge, remember that? Hmmm?" He chuckled as he scribbled on his paper.

"Hannnuuu, you said you weren't going to bring that up again," Ville hung his head, while Paju stared at each of them.

The rest of the questions were mostly uneventful, except for Paju needing to hasten to another table at one juncture, to stop a fight between two participants. Ville had to keep his paper from Hannu's grasp. Finally, Paju gathered the papers up, smoothing out the ones that had been crumpled and thrown at ‘best friends,’ and spent a few minutes marking them.

“I think it would be great if Paju could teach me to write, Hannu, don’t you think?” Ville asked Hannu, who considered before answering.

“I suppose. You should learn, now that you work in the store with Jonna and Joona.”

“And you!”

Hannu only grunted in reply. “I don't know how she's supposed to mark these, she didn't ask us to verify the answers." Turning back to Ville, he asked, "When did I eat poison, anyway? I don’t get it.”

Ville started to reply, but Paju had stood up and was waving her arms to settle people down again. She had quite some difficulty, as several ‘best friends’ were still engaged in heated arguments. “I have the results,” she finally called out, “although some of you have some shocking handwriting, and some of you…well.” She cleared her throat and held up a box topped with a large gold ribbon tied in a bow. “Anyway, I declare the Best Friend to be…VILLE!”

Most people nodded as they clapped. Ville had become quite well-known for his amiable personality around Hokanniemi, although in private they wondered how an anti-social person like Hannu had ended up with a friend like Ville. Ville sat with shining eyes, looking at everyone clapping and looking at him. Hannu nudged him to go up to Paju. “Go on,” he urged, “go get your prize.” In an undertone he added, “you really are the best friend, you know that.”

Ville hurried up then, and taking the box from Paju, cried happily, “I really am the Best D-, urrrr the Best Friend! Thank you! Thank you!” He hugged a rigid and blushing Paju, before returning to his table, followed by a scarlet Paju.

Hannu was standing up at the table, grinning and still clapping loudly. “Hey, look at that! Let’s open it!” He patted the table to encourage Ville to put the prize down.

“You don’t deserve him, Hannu, he’s too pure for this world,” Paju fussed as she arrived. Hannu stuck out his tongue in reply.

“What is it?” Ville turned the box onto its side in his hands, causing the lid to fall off. Hannu jumped to catch the lid, but not before several small brown objects fell out of the box and onto the table. “Oops, sorry,” Ville said apologetically, as he, Paju and Hannu rushed to put the objects back into the box. They didn’t all fit properly anymore. Hannu had retreated behind Paju and was frantically gesturing behind her back for Ville to say something, and he suddenly remembered Hannu’s coaching. “Thank you, though, they’re beautiful…,” he paused to smile beatifically at remembering the right thing to say, “ah, things.” He put the lid back over the top of the package loosely. Hannu was shrugging, wasn’t that the right thing to say?

“Uh, that’s okay,” Paju gazed nonplussed at the box. “You do like chocolates, right?”

Ville recoiled in horror. _Now_ he could identify what the enticing-smelling things were, they smelled so different now that he was human. “Chocolate!!?? Nonono, chocolate is POISON!” He pointed in horror at the box with the gold bow on it. “ _That’s_ the poison Hannu ate!”

Paju gaped at Ville in dismay. “Chocolate is not poison,” she wailed, “it’s really… I mean, I know some people don’t _like_ chocolate, but it’s not poison!”

“Ville,” Hannu held out his hands and looked fixedly at him, “chocolate was poison _befoooore?,_ but, it isn’t _nnowww??_ ” Ville was still panicked, so he repeated it slowly, then brought his hands up to his face in exasperation. “Ville, You Can. Eat. Chocolate. NOW. Your digestion is, you know, different?” Paju was giving Hannu a very odd look, so Hannu stuttered, “The chocolate from before, it was bad for you, but Paju got you _good_ chocolate. Try some.” He held up a piece to Ville. “Go on.”

“Is there steak in it?” Ville asked hopefully as he took the chocolate carefully, causing both Hannu and Paju to wince. He sniffed it, then delicately sank an eyetooth into one edge, revealing a gooey caramel interior. Ville’s eyes opened wide as he tasted the sweet, then eagerly popped the rest of the treat into his mouth. “Thashs ngoodmm,” he declared, before dropping greedy eyes to the box.

“Happy Friends Day, Ville,” Paju replied with a crooked grin and a nod at Hannu. Hannu grinned in return, his mouth full of chocolate.  
  
Hannu cleared his throat. Ville hurriedly nodded. “You can have some too, because Hannu is my best friend.” He handed Paju a chocolate. “And he lets me eat good poison, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Public Service Announcement: did you know that chocolate is poisonous to dogs? Depending on the dog's weight, even a small amount of chocolate can harm them; they apparently react poorly to the theobromine in it. Ville remembers a caution applied when he was still a dog, and doesn't realise he can have it in his human body.  
> Maybe helia7 should have the chocolate instead? Yes, I think so.


End file.
